OK, maybe not all of Japan. But for what we're talking about, it's close enough. Famitsu have asked both their readers and select retailers what they thought were the 10 biggest stories of 2008.

Being Famitsu, and being a wide-ranging poll, no, they're not going to say the LittleBigPlanet release fiasco. Or Grand Theft Auto IV's record-breaking sales. Firstly, this is Japan. Second, Famitsu readers have been conditioned to be a little more...docile than that, instead deciding that a bunch of product announcements were the most EXCITING things about 2008.

Which means the 10 biggest news items of 2008 were:

1. The simultaneous announcement of Dragon Quest X for Wii and Dragon Quest IX's release date — 12/10/2008
2. The release of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G and the social phenomenon it caused — 3/27/2008
3. Square Enix's announcement of three Xbox 360 RPGs (Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope) — 6/10/2008
4. Sony's discontinuation of the 60 and 20GB model PlayStation 3s (removal of backwards compatibility) — 1/20/2008
5. The announcement of Tales of Vesperia for Xbox 360 — 2/22/2008
6. Legal action by 54 game publishers against the importation and sale of Nintendo DS "backup" devices — 7/29/2008
7. The release of Metal Gear Solid 4 — 6/12/2008
8. The sub-¥20000 price drop for Xbox 360 — 9/1/2008
9. The announcement of Final Fantasy XIII for Xbox 360 in America and Europe — 7/15/2008
10. The several hour wait at Tokyo Game Show to play Monster Hunter 3 tri~ — 10/11/2008

Famitsu also asked some bonus questions. Like, which publishers were the standouts of 2008?

1. Capcom
2. Nintendo
3. Square Enix
4. Microsoft
5. Sony

Yup, Microsoft > Sony. What a world we live in. They also asked which developer was the standout: